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Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Advantage and disadvantage of plastics !!

Plastic is very useful in the building and construction, electronics (laptops wouldn't work well if they were made from glass), packaging (gladwrap), transportation industries.

Very easy to make - water bottles, plastic bags, pens, cups etc etc

The main advantages of plastic materials are also the reason why plastic is such a problem. It lasts forever and it is very cheap to make.

When I say it last forever, I mean it does not biodegrade. There is a flotilla of plastic the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean. It gradually photo-degrades into tiny pieces that enter the marine food chain.

Plastic is good, light, strong and cheap to produce. There are many advantages to using plastic. It does not decompose but it can instead be recycled. This is done more easily than producing more plastic.

Unlike aluminum cans, plastic bottles can be re-used and stored over and over again. Plastic is usually not breakable and it is see-through. It's light-weight and odourless. Plastic comes from a natural resource (oil) but CAN'T be re-made into bottles (but they can be re-made into other items- WEIRD!) It takes a long time to break down...

DISADVANTAGES

it is a compound that is indestructible, even when it is melted the compound gas that is gives off is very harmful to our heath and environment; it weakens the ozone layer. Most plastic is produced from oil. The world is gradually running out of oil. Scientists are now developing plastics that are made from vegetable oil and other organic matter. This means that the plastic is more likely to be degradable, so it will be less of a problem in future.